Aston Villa's Fabian Delph halts Chelsea's Premier League title charge

Chelsea's Willian tackles Aston Villa's Karim El Ahmadi in the Premier League match at Villa Park. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

The title race is not a foregone conclusion after all. Not only did Chelsealose ground to Manchester City when Fabian Delph's late winner for Villa cut their lead to six points, they ended up short-handed as first Willian and then Ramires were dismissed. Willian picked up a second yellow card for a rather soft foul on the goalscorer, but the stamp on Karim El Ahmadi that brought a straight red card for Ramires was altogether more serious and brought the game to a bad-tempered conclusion with players squaring up to each other in front of the Chelsea bench.

City have three games in hand so can now overhaul Chelsea if they keep winning. Their 2-0 victory at Hull was achieved by 10 men but Chelsea could not show the same drive and determination, even before their numbers were reduced.

Villa spent the first 10 minutes bemused by the movement and interchangability of Chelsea's three-quarter line of Oscar, Willian and Eden Hazard as the visitors opened the game with businesslike intent, moving the ball around smartly and purposefully and always appearing to have a spare man making himself available.

It was impressive to watch, yet Chelsea's approach work did not lead to any openings in front of goal, just speculative long shots from Willian and Oscar. Most of the actual attacking threat was being channelled through the industrious Hazard, and once Villa worked that out they settled down and began to put together some moves of their own.

Christian Benteke could not keep his header down when Fabian Delph crossed from the left, and Karim El Ahmadi should have done better than waft wastefully over the bar with a decent shooting opportunity, though at least Villa boosted their own confidence by showing they knew the way to goal.

When Benteke missed narrowly with a volley from the edge of the area that had Petr Cech scrambling just before half time it was the closest the game had come to a goal, at least until Nemanja Matic bundled the ball over the Villa line a couple of minutes later, only to be recalled for handball by a linesman. It was hard to detect what the official had seen. It was far from an obvious handling offence, yet the player was slow to celebrate the goal as if he knew he might be pulled up.

If that annoyed José Mourinho, he was even more incensed on the stroke of the interval when Joe Bennett escaped with just a yellow card for bringing down Ramires in full flight when the Brazilian would have been through on goal. It was quite a long way out to be considered a clear goalscoring opportunity. Other players may have been able to come across and cover, though it would certainly have been an opportunity and Chris Foy's lenience brought Mourinho to his feet waving an imaginary card, presumably a red one.

Chelsea might have had a goal early in the second half when Brad Guzan failed to cut out a cross and Hazard was presented with the briefest of shooting opportunities, but he chose to pass instead and when the eventual shot arrived from Oscar it was both hopeful and high. Oscar's next shot was lower and on target yet straight at Guzan, who saved it comfortably even though he could only have seen it late.

The visitors were dominating the game by the hour mark, with Villa rarely managing to cross the half way line, though Chelsea's lack of conviction in front of goal was again highlighted by the directness the home side showed when they did come up with the occasional counter attack. Benteke was only inches wide after a one two with Andreas Weimann in the area as once more Villa demonstrated they could soak up pressure and still threaten a goal on the break. Mourinho replaced Fernando Torres with Demba Ba midway through the second half in an attempt to bring more urgency to the Chelsea attack.

Torres had not had one of his better games, losing the ball cheaply on more than one occasion, though the real problem seemed to be that while Hazard, Willian and Oscar could find each other with ease, even in tight situations in the penalty area, they could not find Torres or anyone else in a position to take a shy at goal.

Then with 22 minutes remaining Willian was gone and Chelsea were down to 10. The Brazilian was cautioned in the first half for a foul on El Ahmadi and saw a second yellow, rather harshly in view of the trifling nature of the offence, for the slightest of tugs on Delph. That was all the encouragement Villa needed. Ba was a mere spectator, just as Torres had been, and after Ron Vlaar had missed with a header from a corner, Delph put his side in front. Whether he applied the finish he intended was debatable, though Delph set up the goal by dispossessing Chelsea on half way and if there was a bit of luck in the way he connected with Marc Albrighton's return pass to guide the ball in he probably deserved it. Delph hit the bar in stoppage time. Chelsea could have no complaints, especially after finishing with nine men.